As the second Star Wars Anthology flick to hail from Disney and Lucasfilm, Solo: A Star Wars Story was always going to be talked about in the same breath as Rogue One.
Not just because of its many production woes – midway through filming, the studio chose to part ways with erstwhile directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller due to creative differences; not unlike how Rogue One called upon Tony Gilroy to overhaul the film’s third act – but also because of its box office ambitions.
Frankly, it’s not like anyone’s expecting Solo: A Star Wars Story to reach the dizzying heights of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi and sure enough, recent figures relayed by Deadline confirmed that Ron Howard’s Western-tinged origin movie is headed for a record $170 million Memorial Day launch, placing it well ahead of Rogue One‘s own opening weekend cume of $155M – though still below those two aforementioned mainline entries.
Although, it may open even higher than that, as we’re now hearing that the Anthology pic’s advanced ticket sales have been huge in the first 24 hours of being available, even outstripping the numbers posted by Black Panther, with Solo sitting second only to Avengers: Infinity War for 2018 releases. That’s pretty impressive for a film that’s seemingly been struggling to generate much buzz amongst the fanbase, with many people simply feeling uninterested in seeing someone else take on the iconic role of Han Solo.
Be that as it may, the legacy of Solo is rich with high-flying adventure, and we know Ron Howard and his team plan to plunge viewers into the dark underworld of Star Wars – a world teeming with smugglers, gangsters, and bounty hunters. Given that Disney hasn’t let us down yet when it comes to this particular franchise, we’ll continue to remain optimistic about the film and are hopeful it was able to pull through all those production troubles it faced last year.
Look for Solo: A Star Wars Story to take flight on May 25th, by which point Lucasfilm’s second Anthology pic will likely be on the verge of a claiming more than a few box office records.
